Toward a Digital Twin for Permafrost Management in the Context of Climate Change

Dr. Pooneh Maghoul, PEng, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal, presents her talk "Toward a Digital Twin for Permafrost Management in the Context of Climate Change". Abstract: The adverse effects of climate warming on the built environment in (sub)arctic regions are unprecedented and accelerating. According to Canada’s Changing Climate Report (2019), in the Arctic regions, temperatures have been warming at approximately twice the rate of the rest of the world. This drastic trend in climate warming will no doubt affect permafrost temperatures and conditions, continue the rise in greenhouse gas emissions, and further add to the high cost of development in northern regions. Planning and design of climate-resilient northern infrastructure as well as predicting deterioration of permafrost from climate model simulations require characterizing permafrost sites accurately and efficiently. In this presentation, Dr. Maghoul will present the concept of the Digital Twin (DT) technology for monitoring and early detection and warning systems of permafrost sites and northern infrastructure affected by climate change. Speaker Bio: Dr. Pooneh Maghoul is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering. She holds an MSc (2007) and a PhD (2010) from École des Ponts Paris Tech. Dr. Maghoul is an expert in the field of multiscale poromechanics for complex materials and processing, energy and environment, and biomechanics. Her research focuses primarily on sustainable development by developing cutting-edge systems and methods related to the performance analysis of subsurface systems subject to complex loading within a multi-hazard context. This includes infrastructure which is resilient to climate change and geohazards on Earth and harsh environments in Space (low gravity conditions). These poromechanics-centered research programs deal with natural- and human-induced hazards, permafrost engineering, smart mining, self-healing ecosystems, geo-structural health monitoring, non-destructive testing, emergency preparedness, energy geostructures, geotechnical earthquake engineering and ground vibration, as well as bio-inspired self-burrowing (soft) robotics, bio-inspired subsurface sensing, and In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) on the Moon and beyond.